This is way late due to the gas leak plus lack of internet in my apartment. This chapter didn't want to be written and I'm sure it shows. I'm trying real hard to catch up today! Hopefully I'll have more to post later that will be somewhat more inspired. Second day of KS week…only two days late!
In which Sakura and Kakashi have their baby and Kakashi is an awesome dad and husband. Rated G. One-shot. KakaSaku. ~700 words. Enjoy!
Sakura began having contractions at, of course, the most inconvenient time possible. On leave from ANBU, she spent most of her time healing and teaching (and yelling) in the hospital, while Kakashi continued teaching his team of genin. She was full-term and still not content to relax in bed, was teaching the newer medic-nins how to assist in a surgery when her labor began. Shizune, having expected just this to happen for several days, stepped in to take care of the teaching.
Despite his legendary distaste for hospitals, Kakashi was there by her side as soon as he'd been summoned, holding her hand and saying a silent prayer that when she squeezed, she'd keep the chakra use to a minimum. He spent her long labor whispering words of comfort in her ear and sweet talking the nurses into treating her extra well – not that her respect as a medic-nin commanded anything less. Tsunade, on the other hand, paced impatiently in the corner, worried sick about the woman she thought of as no less than a daughter, occasionally snapping at a nurse or at Kakashi, still praying for his metacarpals.
Mercifully, her labor was short and sooner than Kakashi expected, the cries of their baby girl filled the room. Tsunade beamed, Kakashi felt vaguely nauseated, and, hands shaking, Sakura took the baby into her arms, not quite believing that it was hers and that it was real.
The new family came home to a pristine house, cleaned by a nesting Sakura over the last few weeks of her pregnancy. Holding baby Hana, Sakura sat heavily on the floor. Her face twisted and she began to cry, rocking back and forth as fat tears streamed down her exhausted face. Kakashi simply watched with eyes wide, not quite sure how to calm his normally unflappable wife.
Sakura was still inconsolable when Kakashi laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Sakura, what's wrong? Can I help?"
Sakura wailed in response, eliciting a similarly-anguished cry from her newborn daughter. Kakashi gently picked up and rocked his daughter, then sat down next to Sakura.
"What's wrong?"
This time she answered with a sniffle and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Kakashi, I don't know how to be a mother! I'm the third best medic in the world and I don't know how I'm going to be able to take good care of Hana and still be in ANBU or even be a medic, and I love her so much but I don't know what I'm doing!"
Kakashi pulled her close with one arm, the other occupied with a now-calm Hana.
"How many times have you brought a baby back from the brink of death? I have confidence that you can be a mother too."
Sakura gave a weak smile and managed to giggle and sniffle at the same time.
"Okay, fair enough." Sakura wiped her cheeks and leaned closer to her husband. "Is it gonna be okay?"
Kakashi smiled and nodded, pulling her even closer. He gently kissed the top of her head, exorcising her doubts.
"C'mon, let's go put her to bed."
Hana slept blissfully and neither Sakura nor Kakashi could quite tear themselves away from admiring the life they created together.
"She has my nose, you know," Kakashi said, putting his hand on the small of Sakura's back.
"Hn, I already feel sorry for her," she muttered, smiling, and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.
The day Hana turned 6 months old, it was a sunny teaching day for Kakashi, who sincerely hoped that Sakura would return from her mission in time to see their baby on her first half-birthday. He stood under his usual tree in the corner of the training field, paying much more attention to the cooing baby in his arms than the rambunctious genin sparring off and on in the field. That night, long after Kakashi had sent his students home to their families, Sakura came home, opening the door quietly so as to not wake the baby, only to find both husband and daughter asleep on the couch. Laughing quietly to herself, Sakura extricated Hana from Kakashi's arms, kissed her as she fussed, and put her to bed. Kakashi, now awake, greeted her with a kiss and walked her to the bedroom. Sakura was exhausted from her mission and didn't particularly care about how sweaty and grimy she was. She curled up in the crook of his arm and fell fast asleep, feeling more secure and at peace than she ever really had.